I’m not gonna lie, folks — news of the Mets re-signing Brandon Nimmo completely blindsided me.
The dude was already in high demand, and his market unsurprisingly intensified once Aaron Judge re-signed with the Yankees during the Winter Meetings. I assumed things would drag on a bit with so many teams interested in him. And based on recent reports, I was already accepting the fact that Nimmo would probably be playing elsewhere in 2023 and beyond.
But, lo and behold, it’s Nimmo who is probably going to be the next lifetime Met, not Jacob deGrom. Just like we all expected. As legendary Yankees announcer, John Sterling would say, “That’s baseball, Suzyn.”
If given the opportunity, I thought the Mets would be OK with potentially overpaying to re-sign Nimmo. With Cody Bellinger, Mitch Haniger, and Masataka Yoshida all signing deals in recent days, outfield options were dwindling. That had to be a big motivator behind the Mets going eight years and $162 million. Well, that an lowering the annual average value of his deal for payroll purposes.
This is by no means a hometown discount. It’s just about impossible to get one with close to half the league inquiring about your services and Scott Boras being your agent. But still, this signals to me that it was important for Nimmo to remain with the Mets.
Just look across town to what Judge and the Yankees did. The Bronx Bombers desperately wanted to keep their slugger, who was being courted with other lucrative offers. Hal Steinbrenner reportedly asked if Judge wanted to be a Yankee. The answer was yes, but the outfielder needed another season added onto New York’s eight-year, $320 million offer.
Once that happened, boom — the Yankees had their American League MVP back.
We obviously don’t know the details behind negotiations for Nimmo, and we’ll probably never get the full story. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a similar situation. Other teams — like the Toronto Blue Jays — were pursuing him hard. Nimmo wanted to be a Met, but the contract had to either line up or be ahead of other offers he was getting.
When push came to shove, Cohen and Billy Eppler felt it was better to blow their competition out of the water instead of having to figure out how to replace him. It’s just another example that if the Mets really want someone, money won’t be a reason why a player doesn’t sign with them.
This eight-year deal will take him to his age 38 campaign, meaning Nimmo could very well spend his entire MLB career with the Mets. Obviously, the most prominent player in Mets history to do that is David Wright. We thought deGrom would join him, but that dream ended a week ago.
Let’s hope Nimmo spending his whole career with the Amazins is the start of a new trend. You know, one where the Mets develop great players, sign them to new contracts, and make sure they never leave Queens.
The other two I’d like to see join Nimmo in that trek would obviously be Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil. I said as such a few weeks ago. Once the dust settles on New York’s 2023 roster construction, Eppler and Co. should start having conversations with Alonso and McNeil about extensions. Let’s not have what happened to deGrom happen again.
If Steve Cohen has shown us anything, it’s that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to sign certain players and give New York the best possible chance of success. Especially if they want to play in Flushing.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
